The new Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science is of such importance for the ever burgeoning number of publications in science and religion that it would be hard not to acknowledge some of its more ambitious claims: first, that it is now indisputable that a new area of study has emerged, one devoted to the complex and multifaceted relationship between science and religion; and second, that this handbook covers a wide spectrum of almost all the major fields of science as well as the major world religions. The fifty-seven contributions by a truly stellar international team certainly form an authoritative and up-to-date guide to one of the most important contemporary interdisciplinary discussions in the world today. This comprehensive volume is one of a kind in the sense that it both seeks to provide an introduction to the dialogue in science and religion and a snapshot of the state of art of this discussion across its various sub-fields.

The editors should be complimented for the balanced and crystal-clear structure of this book. Possibly the most exciting new discussions in this field are indeed interpretations of the science–religion relationship from the perspective of each of the major world religions. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science, already in the first of its six detailed parts, does an outstanding and in-depth job of tracing this interdisciplinary dialogue across traditions as diverse as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, indigenous religions, religious naturalism and even atheism. In so doing the editors create a valuable prism for discussions which follow on the impact of the various sciences on diverse religions, the major fields of science and religion, various possible methodological approaches to religion and science, some of the most salient contemporary debates in science and religion and (in the sixth and final section) many of the most important value issues in the contemporary science and religion debates. Underlying these various programmatic sections are the nine central questions behind the project which emerge as leading themes in many of the chapters:

• • In what ways are the goals, methods and results of religious practice/reflection similar to or different from those of the sciences?

• • How does the relationship between science and religion differ when viewed from the perspective of various religious traditions?

• • How does this relationship differ when viewed from the perspective of various specific sciences?

• • Which methodologies are most helpful and which are too limited in understanding the relationship between religion and science?

• • What light is shed on the core questions of science and religion by the various disciplines involved in the interdisciplinary project?

• • What is the ‘naturalism’ with which science is so often associated?

• • To what extent is the practice of science affected by culture, gender and religious presuppositions?

• • Do science and religion represent completely different ways of knowing or are there epistemic roots and a common definition of knowledge which both share?

• • What are the implications of the science and religion dialogue for the various value issues which confront humankind today?

In the six major sections of the Handbook these themes and questions unfold in a truly stunning variety of interdisciplinary topics. Moreover, its boldly pluralistic approach is not only epistemologically responsible but never presupposes that there is a single ‘correct’ relationship between discourses as diverse as science and religion. This is most evident in part 5, one of the strongest in the book: here twenty chapters are developed as paired debates between experts focusing on the most controversial issues in each field. Of course, in the end not even a Handbook of Religion and Science of more than a thousand pages can offer everything. I found myself wishing for more on the impact of contemporary debates in philosophy of science and in neuroscience (also neurotheology), on the religion and science dialogue. More puzzling is that, in spite of strong essays on evolution and Darwinism, one on anthropology and one essay referencing primatology, contemporary issues related to archaeology and palaeoanthropology are almost completely missing. As a result, debates on human origins, and thus on the evolution of language, symbolic and religious behaviour, sexuality and morality, are under-represented, if not absent. This, however, does not overshadow Philip Clayton and Zachary Simpson's major accomplishment in putting together a landmark publication.